The national Automotive Industry is experiencing an unparalleled boom and one of the most benefited from this rebound is the Plastics Sector, thanks to the changes in the use of polymers instead of metal, wood or steel, which strengthens the union of this dumbbell thanks to the low costs and energy savings that new plastic technologies promote. With data provided by the document: The Mexican Automotive Industry: Current Situation, Challenges and Opportunities, published by ProMéxico, it is expected that, by 2020, this industry will produce, in more than 30 manufacturing plants, about 5 million vehicles light from 13 different brands.
Despite the changes that are envisaged in the Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), more and more international companies are coming to the country to be suppliers to the shipowners already established in the country. Currently, 80% of Mexico’s automotive production is destined for the export market, and 86% is destined for Canada and the United States. As the study mentions, “…, paradoxically, the growth of the Mexican Automotive Industry is driven mainly by exports to markets outside the NAFTA region, which have made Mexico a true global player.”
It is expected that by 2020, the sale of light vehicles will reach two million units. However, to reach this potential, it is necessary to increase financing for the purchase of light vehicles from 60% to 80%, and to expand the purchasing possibilities of those sectors of society with greater economic mobility.
In this regard, the 18th KPMG International Global Survey of Automotive Executives 2017, ensures that the Automotive Sector has to manage -at the same time- three types of trends between now and 2025. “On the one hand, continue with the evolution of the current market (rationalization of production, growth in emerging countries and the commercialization of hybrid vehicles) and, on the other, facing the revolution and disruption that many of the current advances in the field of mobility represent ”.
Albrecht Ysenburg, leading partner of KPMG’s Automotive Industry in Mexico, asserted that: “The country is today a global player in the Automotive Sector, and it will also be so in the future. Existing business models (dependence on the US market) will have to change and Mexico will have to seek new opportunities in other areas. The neighboring country’s market only has approximately 16% of the world market. So there are many possibilities waiting for us ”.
What is a fact is that technology will change the landscape of this sector. The value that is gaining more and more strength is that of customers throughout the entire life cycle, derived from an increasingly digitized market, so that, in the long term, only market participants who earn so much will prevail. consumers like their data, and that they use it to satisfy personalized tastes that have to be taken care of, since cars have the tendency of being more than transportation vehicles and being more objects that “help us to relax, to work and to concentrate or have fun and socialize, ”as KPMG survey results suggest.
The good news is that the Automotive Industry is a fundamental sector in the economic development of Mexico; For this reason, factors such as fierce global competition, technological innovations and access to new markets will transform the face of the sector in the next 10 years.
